The League/Volume 3: Chapter 2
Ghost “Another round,” I muttered to the bartender. The other members of the League were at the headquarters. Something about finding a member of the Wikia Staff and questioning him. It really didn’t matter to me. There was nothing I could do to help with the situation. Matter of fact, there was nothing I could do to help at all. What could the team do with a cripple? Hell, what could I do without this suit keeping me in one piece? The barkeep walked over to me with a look of what was supposed to be concern. I could tell, though, that she was disgusted with me. She saw the metal suit around me and saw a freak. “Hey, I know you’re a member of the League and all, but I…can’t serve you when you’re clearly drunk.” Aside from that, some of the other customers are looking…well-” “The other ‘’customers’’ can go suck a row of metal dicks,” I muttered. “Excuse me?” she said, indignantly. “I believe I said, BARKEEP!” I roared, slamming my fist down hard on the table. “GIMME AN AJ *ON THE ROCKS*.” The sound around me stopped, and I heard people talk about me from behind me. The barkeep gave me a look of terror as she pulled out a Jameson, dropped some ice in a glass, and poured the whiskey. She placed the glass on the coaster and shuffled away. “There,” I muttered. “Now, was that so hard?” I downed it in one gulp. The burn had died away ten drinks ago, but it was one of the few things I could still feel. Drinking was something that made me feel human, and I was sure this fucking suit would find a way to change that. It would always be “updating” and restricting what I could do. I’m more machine than I am man. The more I thought about it, the more angry I got. The more angry I got, the more I needed to drink. “BARKEEP!” I shouted again. From behind, my suit detected someone approaching me. “Hey, asshole, I don’t care if you’re in the League or not, fuck off and get out of this bar!” I turned around to face them. The bouncer and some of the local color wanted to make a stand against me with pool sticks and fists. Fucking idiots. “Get me out, bub.” I needed a fight. I stood up from my stool and grimaced. One of the men ran at me, swinging his cue at my face. It smashed on my metal dome. I felt nothing. I’m not sure if it was the drunkenness or the suit, but either way, I kind of wish I could have. At least I had an outlet for my anger besides the drinking standing right in front of me. I grabbed the man by the throat and tried to throw him at two oncoming men, but when I was still holding the idiot who attacked me, I looked down and saw my claws had come out, and thin streams of blood were slugging down his flesh. I guess I’d drunkenly activated my claws. Fuck it. This idiot should have known better. Nonetheless, his friends were freaking out, as were other patrons. “Oh my god, he stabbed him!” “Monster!” “Someone kill this freak!” The mood of the room kept elevating. Fuck it, I was ready to break the necks of every person in the room. Suddenly, I heard a *click*. Someone brought a gun to a wolf fight. I turned to see a bearded idiot pointing his gun at me. “Really? You want to try shooting me?” I chuckled before I dropped the idiot and went to the beardo. I punched him in the face, sending him staggering back a few steps. I didn’t need his gun, but I took it anyways and shot him through his left knee. He screamed in pain. “Anyone else want some?! Huh?!” I barked. Everyone in the bar stood still, afraid to move. They knew I was not in a mood to play. “Feel better about yourself? Do you feel like the alpha wolf now?” A woman’s voice rang from the crowd. I looked around for the source of the voice but couldn’t find it. Whoever it was, she was either stupid or brave. Finally, a blonde woman in red-and-black tights and a brown trenchcoat walked from the crowd, stopping a few steps from me. She had a look of no fear in her eyes. “Are you retarded?” I asked, showing off my claws. She still didn’t look scared. She even chuckled a bit at my claws. “It is considered rude to talk to yourself.” The woman took a fighting stance, looking at me as if I were nothing to her. I leapt at her after retracting my claws. She slid through my armor, somehow, and I crashed into a table. “I recommend you keep the claws out. At least you have a chance of getting a scratch on me, Brent.” I quickly stood up and threw the table at her. She swiftly stepped out of the way. “What, are you my fucking friend now, lady?!” I roared, following up with a wild swinging punch towards her face. She ducked under the punch and shoved me back, hard. As I stumbled backwards, she stepped in with a punch directly to my chest. I fell to my knees. Pain. Chest pain. What the hell…I hadn’t felt this since before I lost my body. I stood up to face her, but she was no longer in front of me. “Can you still use your own eyes, or does the machine do all the looking for you?” I turned to see her standing behind me. What the hell just happened? Was I drunk, or did this lady phase through me, teleport, and hit nerves that weren’t working? “Wha-How the FUCK are you doing?!” I shouted. I slowly stood up, my feet wobbly. The suit was doing the work, but I could still feel the pain from her previous strikes. She came at me once more, but from the behind. My suit’s sensors gave me a warning. Just as she was about to hit me, I turned and slammed my fist into her stomach. I stood for a while, expecting her to crumple to her knees. After a second or two, I realized her expression hadn’t changed. In fact, her hands had intercepted the punch. This definitely wasn’t just me being drunk. This lady had stopped my metal fist with her hands. She looked into my eyes, coming in close. “I did warn you to keep the claws out.” With that, she spun her hands and flipped me into a mid-air spiral. While I was hovering in the air, she came in with a palm strike to my stomach. I flew through the bar exit and rolled onto the ground into the back alley. I lay slumped against a wall. My suit was malfunctioning, and I was having a hard time standing up. The lady stepped through the door and walked up to me, as I simply looked up at her. “That anger. That depression. It is good. It means you are human after all. It means you are alive. Cherish that.” I raised my hand towards her. “I sure as shit don’t look like it.” The woman looked at me for the longest time before grabbing my hand as well. She pulled me up to my feet. “What is a man? Is it a miserable little pile of secrets? Maybe it is a penis. Tell me, what do you think it is that makes a man?” “I don’t need to tell you anything,” I said, pushing myself away from her. “You are certainly right about that, but tell me Ghostieboi, did you feel alive when we fought?” I wanted to tell her to fuck off and leave me alone. I wanted to, but deep down inside, I knew she had a point. The last time I felt so alive was during the big battle. “I…damn’t. Who the hell are you, anyway? How do you know who I am, and what do you want from me?” “In this place, It is kind hard not to know you you are, ‘bub’.” I smirked. She had a point. “My name is Katie Shiva, and I have a proposition for you. I sense you have a great deal of humanity within you, waiting to flow to the surface, and I wish to cultivate it. Everything you saw me do was within the limits of humanity. I will train you to get back in touch with who you are. Who you are beyond the plates and steel. Do you accept?” “What do you want from me?” There had to be a catch. There was ALWAYS a catch. “It is very simple. In return for your training, I want you to record a video of you masturbating onto a photograph of Mayor Kaley while screaming ‘PUT A STRAWBERRY IN ME’!” For the longest time, we stood silently, as I waited for her to say it was a bad joke. The look on her face said otherwise. “No.” I wasn’t even sure how things worked down there. This Katie chick was a good fighter, but I wasn’t about to do that. I turned to leave. “Wait, wait! I will train you regardless, just...do not mention this to anyone. I have a reputation to upkeep with…people.” I shrugged and nodded. “Fine.” I didn’t know this woman, but it felt nice to know that someone saw a man inside me, not just the metal keeping me alive. Trivia *First appearance of Katie Shiva. Category:The League Category:Issues